"Rick Eggleston" wrote
I have grown tomatoes, cucumbers and melons for the first time in pots with
Bowers peat-free compost. As the Bowers dries out quickly, I have
installed timed irrigation from rainwater butts. This has had limited
success as the water seems to take the path of least resistance straight
down through the Bowers. Even using a ring of micro-soaker hose in the
pot, water is running out the bottom before the compost is full soaked.

I have potted vines in John Innes compost watered by the same method
without problems.

Has anyone experience of any other peat-free composts?
Would a blended mixture of Bowers and John Innes work?

A few years ago I did a back to back test of germination and seedling
raising with what was then the best Peat free compost, "New Horizons",
against my normal Levingtons Multipurpose and published the results on my
old allotment web site which unfortunately is now defunct. (due to the
hosting Co starting to charge!)
Basically the peat free was nowhere near as good, germination was slower and
it needed much more fertilizer to get plants to grow, a bit like the
difference between a good heavy loam and a sandy soil. Even with extra TLC
the resultant plants were not as good.
I concluded Peat Free was not a good enough product for me (used mainly for
veg plants).

You could try that water absorbing jelly stuff mixed in the compost next
year or even a John Innes No.3 compost which contains a lot less peat than a
normal multipurpose.

--
Regards
Bob H